Signal glass



4 Aug. 27', 1935'. DAVIDSON 2,012,933

SIGNAL GLASS Patented Aug. 27, 1935 I UNITED STATES PATEN'l OFFICE SIGNAL GLASS Thomas D. Davidson, San Francisco, Calif; Elli- 7 nor Campbell Davidson, executrix of said Thomas D. Davidson, deceased, assignor to Chrysler Corporation, Highland Park, Mich, acorporation of Delaware Application March 5, 1929, Serial No. 344,241

3 Claims. (01. 17'l329) This application is a continuation-in-part of found that in the reflection from an individual my co-pending application Serial No. 421,761, filed tetrahedron formed on'the back of my glass that November l, 1920, for an improvement in Signal the corners of the said tetrahedrons do not reglass and in hich the 1ai r m d a d to flect to the degree that the body portion or cenwhich reference is herein made. ter of the said tetrahedron, and therefore in 5 My. present invention has 'for its object the forming y Signal glass t Will be found provision of a surface .of reflection in a transvantageous, depending upon the proportions ofparent medium such as glass whereby rays r the tetrahedron employed, to cut ofi the said corceived thereon are reflected back parallel to the n s that t as f t t a n w be direction from which they are received, regardshap d as a h xa A m r of t a d 10 less'of the angle, presented by the receiving surso formed will then entirely cover a given area. face of the medium to the approaching b The particular form of tetrahedron best adapted whereby I obtain a reflection of a light beamis t a known as a Cube Comer and-also a back to its original source. I obtain from my pl reflector and which Consists of three signal glass a reflection from a movinglight right n d is s triangles w the right 15 source back upon itself, over any angle, within angles forming an apex and of a single equilatmuch widerlimits, than has heretofore b en teral triangle forming the base. In some cases tained. It is well known that a plain reflecting I prefer to form the tetrahedron with 'a hexagsurface will reflect a beam of light according to onal base and in formin the glass, to m r the the law of optics, that the angle of reflectionv is Corners .into each other so that while retaining 20 equal to the angle of incidence. In my signal .the tetrahedron shape ab a emerging o glass I provide a plurality of reflecting surfaces the plane of the glass, the said tetrahedrons will so that the incident beam is reflected through a form themselves into gro p of interbollnding plurality of paths finally emerging from my sigheXagOnS and have Substantially all Of the nal' glass as a reflected beam parallel with the fleeting qualities of the full cornered tetrahedron. 25

incident beam. By referring to the accompanying drawing my These objects I attain by forming my signal invention will be made clear: glass with one side constituting substantially a Fig.1 shows my signal glass formed in complane surface or a surface of lens form, and on bination with the tail light of an automobile and the opposite'side, a plurality of regular tetra-' its illumination and reflection from my signal 30 hedrons, a beam of light being received upon the glass; in section. relatively plane side of the glass then passes Fig. 2 is a perspective view of one of the tetrathrough and is reflected by the angular faces of hedrons with the corners uncut. the tetrahedrons within the glass and emerges Fig. 3 is a plan view of Fig. 2, with the hnes again from the relatively plane side of the glass of the corner cuts shown dotted in. 35 substantially parallel with the entering or in- Fig. 4 is an enlarged crosssection through a cident ray. portion of the signal glass as on the line V-V of By forming a portion only of the rear surface Fig. 5. of the glass with the tetrahedrons, a portion of Fig. 5 is an enlarged view of a portion of sev- 40 the glass will be relatively transparent and the eral of the tetrahedrons as formed on one side of 40 portion formed with the tetrahedrons will be a the glass of Fig. 1.

reflector. Throughout the figures similar numerals refer By the employment of my signal glass on the to identical parts. rear of one automobile the driver of another The lights of an approaching automobfle are automobile approaching from the rear will obindicated by the numerals I and 2 (see Fi 1) 45 tain reflection of his own headlights from my the illumination of which is received upon the signal glass and thus be warned regardless of surface 3, 3,is transmitted through the glass, and any illumination ahead of him. reflected upon the rear surface thereof being the Where my signal glass is employed as above surfaces of a plurality of tetrahedrons as at 4, 4,

described, the lights of any approaching autoand will emerge through the suraface-3 as a re- 50 mobile will illuminate this glass to the driver flected beam as indicated at 5. This reflected of the said automobile, who will therefore at beam will indicate at once to the driver of the 7 once be warned of the danger ahead, by the approaching automobile through the reflection functioning of his own headlights which are reof the light from his headlights the obstacle to flected back to-him by my signal glass. 1 have which my signal glass is attached. In the i1- 55 lustration Fig. 1 the signal glass is shown as 'forming a portion or the tail light 6 or an automobile, which tail light is ordinarily observable through the action of the electric light I, and the lens portion 8, indicating the object as an obstruction. If the lamp 1 burns out or for any reason is extinguished there will still be a warning through the action of the reflecting portions of my signal glass and it the glass is of a red color the reflected beam 5 will be red even though the lights I and 2 are white.

In Fig. 4 is shown the path of a ray of light 9 striking the cross-section of the glass and its reflection outward again as the ray 5. The tetrahedron of Fig. 3 may be formed with the corners I 0 and II and I! left off so that in reality the I geometrical figure resulting from the mutilation ofthe tetrahedron would in effect be a septa hedron, having a regular hexagonal base and a plurality of such septahedrons will assemble on their bases with a single plane surface completely covering the said plane surface and thus form ing a reflection of high efliciency. The reflected beam will be substantially'parallel' to the incident beam as at 5, 9, Figs. 1 and 4, regardless of the angle of incidence between the beams 9 and the surface 3 within very wide limits, and in forming my signal glass it is to be understood that' may in such case lie practically within the smooth side of the glass.

It will be observed that with my signal glass I depend on the reflection within the tetrahedron,

' the light ray being at such time within the glass and that therefore no silvering or other coating is necessary to attain the desired result.

I claim:

1. A cover glass for signal lamps comprising a portion adapted freely to transmit light, and a portion provided with cube-corner prisms adapt-, ed to reflect light received by it from without the lamp.

2. A signal lantern cover glass comprising a light-transmitting portion and an integral light reflecting portion, said reflecting portion having a plane external surface and'an interior surface provided with prisms in the shape of cube corners.

3. The combination in a signal lantern of a source of light, a cover glass having a portion adapted freely to transmit light and an adjacent reflecting portion, said reflecting portion covered with facets joined together in groups of three at right angles to each other.

THOMAS n. DAVIDSON 

